Jar wrench



J. C. RICHEL.

June 13, 1939.

JAZR WRENCH Filed Nov. 6, 1936 l v fi,

Ric eZ Patented June 13, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 6 Claims.

'Ihis invention relates to improvements in jar wrenches, and its objects are as follow:

First, to provide a household tool or implement to constitute a jar Wrench, said wrench including a pair of holding tongs and a socket arrangement, both of which are proof against slipping when used on a jar as later described.

Second, to provide an efficient means for handling jars while hot and without necessitating a persons hands coming into contact with the hot `jars.

Third, to provide a jar wrench having the foregoing characteristics, for conveniently tightening jar caps upon hot jars in home canning.

Other objects and advantages will appears in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a partial elevational and sectional view of the improved jar wrench,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the structure shown in Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a partially sectional and plan View of the tongs alone,

Figure 4 is a cross section taken on the line 4 4 of Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a detail relevation of a portion of the tongs and bracket assemblage, and

Figure 6 is a cross section taken on the line 6 6 of Figure 2.

In the drawing, I designates a jar of any known type, for example, the familiar glass jar which is commonly used in preserving fruits, vegetables, and the like. This jar has a screw neck 2, and it is adapted to have a cap 3 screwed thereon, a

`- rubber washer (not shown) being interposed according to the custom to make a tight seal.

It is the purpose of the improved jar wrench to effect the latter tight seal without the necessity of the user handling either the jar or the screw cap, both of which are presumably hot.

For the purpose of holding the jar I provision is made of a tongs, generally designated 4. This device consists of identical halves 5 which nearly encircle the jar I adjacently to its neck when applied (Fig. 2). The arms 6 of these halves flare slightly, and have wood or other insulating handles 1. The opposite ends 8 of the halves are forked (Fig. 5) to fit upon the wings 9 of a bracket IIJ. The forked ends are riveted at II to the wings 9, but with suflicient looseness to enable the tongs to be swung open or closed as may be required.

The bracket I is of angled formation (Fig. 1), that is to say, it consists of an upright part and also of a horizontal part, the latter terminating in a loop I2 which constitutes a bearing. The bracket assemblage comprises the angled configuration in Fig. l, the bearing loop I2 and the wings 9. This assemblageis capable of being made according to any one of a variety of ways, 5 but for the purpose of the instant illustration it is made up of metal pieces in rights and lefts, riveted together at I3. The wings include a bottom piece (Fig. 5), but, as stated, it is entirely within the spirit of the invention to make the 10 bracket assemblage in unitary form in the first instance, thereby eliminating the extra work of piecing the parts together.

A socket I4 stands in position above the screw neck 2 when the jar wrench is applied to the jar 15 (Fig. 1). This socket has the general form of the screw cap 3, only it is larger. The socket has guide threads I5, and these provide a track for a heavy coil spring I6 which is situated on the inside and tends to expand into the track. '20 The side wall of the socket is slotted at I'I' to provide an outlet for the lateral projection I8 of the coil spring (Figs. 1 and 2). The top of the socket has a hole I9 (Fig. 2) in which an axial projection 29 of the spring is tightly tted. 25

It is between the expansion of its convolutions into the guide threads I5 of the socket I4 and the fastening of the projection in the top of the socket that the coil spring I6 is held in place so that it will not drop out. A bridge piece 2I is `30 medially spaced at 22 from the top of the socket I4, and secured at its ends to said top as at 23.

A shaft 24 is journaled in the bearing I2. The upper end of the shaft has a handle 25 for turning the same. A spring 2E, between the bearing 35 I2 and the handle 25 keeps the socket I4 up.

y In furtherance of the latter purpose the lower end of the shaft 24 is secured at 2l in any desired way to a lever 28. This lever is angled, the horizontal part working in the space 22, wherein it is secured to the adjacent end of the shaft 24, the vertical part extending down beside the socket I4 where it has a hole 29 (Fig. 1) in which the lateral spring projection I8 is fitted. inasmuch as the lower end of the shaft 24 is se cured to the lever 28, and the latter is confined to the space 22 between the socket top and the bridge piece 2l, it is easy to see that the spring 26 will hold the socket up when permitted to do In order to insure the grip of the tongs 4 upon the jar I, each of the halves 5 is provided with rubber linings 30 (Figs. 3 and 4) These linings are in the form of molded inserts, and their purpose is to effectively grip the surface of the 5 glass. The linings are capable of being inserted because the two halves are desirably made in tubular form (Figs. 4 and 6). The arms are of closed tubular form, but the halves to which the lead lines from the numeral run (Fig. 2) are opened suiciently (Fig. 4) to contain the base parts of the inserts 3D. This makes a simple yet elective construction.

The operation is readily understood. The normal condition of the jar wrench is depicted in Fig. 1. The tongs 4 is opened suiliciently far to get the halves 5 around the jar I, whereupon the halves are closed (Fig. 2). The user grips the handles 'I. The bracket assemblage I0 stands above the neck 2. The screw cap 3 was inserted in the socket I4 before the tongs were applied.

In emplacing the screw cap as stated, the threads of the latter are simply run into the convolutions of the coil spring I6, the latter standing out sufficiently far to enable that to be done. Now the user bears down on the handle 25 and turns it with a right hand or clockwise motion at the same time. The cap 3 is screwed onto the neck 2, and in the nal fraction of a turn the lever 28 will move relatively to the socket I4 and vtighten the coil spring I6 upon the screw cap 3, the spring acting as a exible thread.

The slot II in the socket I4 enables this relative movement, and the eifect is to wind the spring tightly upon the screw cap 3, bearing in mind that the projection 20 at the opposite end of the spring is anchored. Upon desiring to release the socket I4, a slight left hand turn is given the handle 25, unwinding the spring I 6 and releasing its tension from the now tight screw Vcap 3. The socket I4 is elevated by the spring 26, and the tongs 4 is opened to remove the Wrench from the jar.

I claim: 1. A jar wrench comprising jar-gripping means, a bracket upstanding from said jargripping means, a manually operable tightening member, a spiral cap-screwing spring having one end anchored to a portion of said tightening member, and means swivelly carried by said tightening member having the other end of said spring anchored thereto.

2. A jar wrench comprising a tongs to grip a jar, a bracket assemblage upon which the tongs is carried, a screw cap socket, and means therein for frictonally and contractably holding a screw cap, a turnable shaft journaled on the bracket assemblage, and meansby which the socket is attached to the shaft, said means including a lever so connected with said flexible means as to progressively contract it upon the threads of the screw cap in the nal fractional turn of the shaft in screwing the cap home.

3. A jar Wrench comprising a tongs to grip a jar, a bracket assemblage upon which the tongs is carried, said assemblage including a bearing, a shaft journaled in the bearing and having a handle at its upper end, a socket which has a bridge piece spaced therefrom, the lower end of the shaft extending into the space, a lever which has a part working in the space to which part the lower end of the shaft is secured, said lever including another part that extends beside the socket, a spring between the bearing and handle tending to hold the bridge piece up against the bearing, and a coil spring situated in the socket, the latter having threads to provide a guide for the convolutions of the spring, one end of the spring being secured to the top of the socket, the other end of the spring going through a slot in the side wall of the socket and being fastened to said other part of the lever.

4. A jar wrench comprising a socket, a coil spring contained by the socket secured at one of its ends to the socket and being adapted to have its other end moved relatively to the socket, said coil spring being further adapted to hold a screw cap therein, means which carries the socket and has said other end of the spring connected to it, the initial turns of said means turning the entire socket, the final fractional turn of said means winding the spring progressively tightly around the screw cap as the latter is driven home on the neck of a jar, a bracket assemblage upon which said socket and its parts are carried, and a tongs to grip the jar, said tongs consisting of two halves pivoted to the bracket assemblage, each half being of tubular form, the tubing of which is partly open to contain and hold a rubber lining to engage the surface of the jar.

5. A jar wrench comprising a coil spring into the convolutions of which a jar cap is adapted to be fitted, a spring and cap socket to which one end of said spring is secured, and turning means which is turnably carried by said socket and has the other end of said spring secured thereto.

6. A jar wrench comprising a coil spring into the convolutions of which a jar cap is adapted to be tted, a spring and cap socket to which one end of said spring is secured and having a slot through which the other end of the spring is extended, and turning means which is turnably carried by said socket, extending into proximity to said slot, and having said other end of the spring connected therewith.

JOHN C. RICHEL. 

